Alpha Beta Gamma Kill - Greek Letters and their Names

The Chaos Halo series has begun, now published in the Sci-Fi ezine, Future Chronicles. Already there's been an amazing number of people contact me regarding the introductory story, "Alpha Beta Gamma Kill", and they all want more.

I've just finished the final draft of the next story in the series. It's titled "Patient Zero" and we'll see Abigale (aka Alpha Beta Gamma Kill) getting her hands dirty.

This blog post is kind of related to the story, honest.

ALPHA BETA GAMMA KILL

Al-phuh Bay-tuh Gamm-muh Kill.

Remember all that gumph back in school when we had to deal with geometry and trigonometry? Indeed, some of you guys may still be dealing with it! Whilst doing a bit of homework for the Chaos Halo series, I came across the chart below and thought it helpful to know how the names of certain letters are spelled and pronounced.

Name	Character	Pronunciation
alpha	α	AL-phuh
beta	β	BAY-tuh
gamma	γ	GAMM-muh
delta	δ	DELL-tuh
epsilon	ε	EPP-sih-lonn
zeta	ζ	ZAY-tuh
eta	η	AY-tuh
theta	θ	THAY-tuh
iota	ι	ee-OH-tuh
kappa	κ	CAPP-uh
lambda	λ	LAMM-duh (What animal is that? It's a "LAMB -- duh"!!)
mu	μ	myoo
nu	ν	noo
xi	ξ	ksee
omicron	ο	OH-mih-kronn
pi	π	piy (Like apple "pie".)
rho	ρ	roh (Like "row, row, row your boat".)
(final) sigma	ς	SIGG-muh
sigma	σ	SIGG-muh
tau	τ	tow (like the first syllable of "towel")
upsilon	υ	OOPS-ih-lonn
phi	φ	fiy (Like "fee, fie, fo, fum")
chi	χ	kiy
psi	ψ	psiy
omega	ω	oh-MAY-guh

As far as I understand, the Greek letters that are most likely seen for angles are α (alpha), β (beta), γ (gamma), δ (delta), and θ (theta). Apparently you'll be using π (pi) all the time, but that's where I start to go cross-eyed.

All that aside, when it comes to reading my Chaos Halo series in the Future Chronicles ezine, be sure to pronounce it correctly otherwise Abigale will not be impressed.

She's already held the barrel of Toothpick against my forehead, insisting my pronunciation was perfect...


Al-phuh Bay-tuh Gamm-muh Kill

αβγ - Abi - Abigale... And she demands respect.

Author photo (c)Christopher Shoebridge

Mark Cassell lives in a rural part of the UK with his wife and a number of animals. He often dreams of dystopian futures, peculiar creatures, and flitting shadows. Primarily a horror writer, his steampunk, fantasy, and SF stories have featured in several anthologies and ezines.

His debut novel, The Shadow Fabric, is a supernatural story and is available from Amazon.

Twitter: @Mark_Cassell ~ Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorMarkCassell